Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Banana A Day – Dear Wendy

After watching Scott Pilgrim twice and seeing the great performances by Alison Pill and Mark Webber I figured I might as well re-visit the film that I first saw them in. In 2006 there were two trailers that I kept seeing one being Rian Johnson's Brick and the other was Dear Wendy. Directed by Thomas Vinterberg and written by Lars von Trier Dear Wendy is a film that is timeless and cool. The movie is about a group of misfits living in a stereotypical mining town. The movie starts with Jamie Bell's character Dick buying a gun that he thinks is fake, but is actually real. This is revealed to him by Mark Webber's character Stevie a self-proclaimed gun enthusiast. Together they begin to learn about their guns and even sneak down into the abandoned mine for target practice. This new hobby brings confidence to both Dick and Stevie and they decide it would be wrong to keep this new found confidence to themselves. Dick comes up with the idea to establish The Dandies a secret club that combines guns and pacifism. Dick recruits other town outcasts Susan (played by Alison Pill), and brothers Huey (played by Chris Owen) and Freddie (played by Michael Angarano). The Dandies establish their clubhouse in the old mine and soon create elaborate costumes to wear and rules to follow. Their guns are never to be used against another person and are always to be respected. Overtime each one of The Dandies become expert marksmen. After an outsider is introduced the values of the group change with dramatic consequences. Dear Wendy is a very watchable film. The actors do a great job at playing outcasts who gain confidence overtime. While watching the movie it is easy to feel as if you are a part of the group of characters. The films portrayal of the characters is outlandish but easily relatable because of how broad the characterizations are. The movie contains some cool stylistic flourishes like the one above and has an awesome final scene. All this fuelled by a soundtrack featuring The Zombies makes for a very cool movie. The movie has a good story, great characters, and a timeless feel. All this will hopefully help the film gain a following in the future.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks to this posting I watched it yesterday, and it will be now featured in an up-coming Monday Movies and Pillows night. keep bloggin dude face!

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